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September 11, 2009
Vol. V, Issue 35
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- Where's Elliott? Goat herding?
- Feature Article: Quick & Easy Trial Graphics
- Quotations for Trial Lawyers
- Five Minute Skills Review
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It's been another great week here in St. Thomas! One of the more interesting things I saw this week was a group of goats playing on the cliffside near our local grocery store. It was amazing how stable they were. My only experience with rockclimbing was at an indoor rockclimbing gym and on a workout machine called a "treadwall" (it's like a treadmill, but for climbing). I wouldn't have lasted 10 seconds on the cliff before getting knocked off. I don't think Bear Grylls could have lasted too long up there, either. Yet these goats kept running back and forth, up and down, and never lost their footing.
It was kind of like watching an experienced attorney in the courtroom -- when you know what you're doing, when you know where all of the footholds and handholds are, and when you know all of the rules of the game, you make the difficult look easy. Hopefully, this week's article will reveal another one of those handholds and help you look like the master of your courtroom. In this article, you'll learn how to create quick and easy courtroom exhibits to help your witnesses tell their stories more effectively. I hope it helps in your next trial!
Best wishes for success in your next trial,
Elliott Wilcox
Editor - Trial Tips Newsletter
ABOUT ELLIOTT: Elliott Wilcox has served as the lead trial lawyer in nearly 200 jury trials and more non-jury trials than he can count. He trains hundreds of trial lawyers every year how to improve their courtroom presentation skills, and his trial advocacy articles are read by thousands of trial lawyers in every continent around the world except one. (If you know any lawyers in Antarctica, please send them to www.TrialTheater.com !)
by Elliott Wilcox
How many times have your witnesses found themselves at a loss for words while trying to explain what happened to them or trying to explain what they saw? It happens more often than you'd like, doesn't it?
Early in my career, I was defending a motion to suppress in a Driving Under the Influence (DUI) case. The issue was whether or not the police officer had a valid reason to stop the defendant's car. When I asked the officer about the reason for the stop, he told us that the defendant had made a “wide turn.”
“Could you explain that for us a little better, so that we understand what you saw?”
“He made a 'wide' turn. It was a lot wider than a normal turn -- he went out of the normal pathway for a turn, way out of the way, almost driving off the roadway. I'm not sure if I'm doing a good job of explaining what I saw, but when I saw him make the turn, I thought he was out of control and a danger to other drivers on the road.”
He was right -- he wasn't doing a very good job of describing what he'd seen. Even though the picture in his mind was perfectly clear, neither the judge nor myself could 'see' what the officer had seen. If I didn't help him paint a clear picture, we were going to lose the motion, and we would lose the case.
That's when I had a bright idea.
I took a magic marker out of my trial toolbox, walked over to the flipchart, and drew a quick sketch of the intersection the officer had been describing.
“May the witness step down the witness stand, your Honor?”
Intrigued, the judge said, “Officer, you may step down.”
Taking a business card out of my wallet, I drew a large arrow on the back of my card and handed it to the officer. “Officer, pretend that this is the defendant's car, with the arrow pointing in his direction of travel. Please show use exactly what you saw when the defendant made this 'wide' turn.”
In an instant, any doubts about the validity of the stop were removed. Using a crude, hand-drawn exhibit, the officer was able to show everyone exactly what he'd seen and exactly why he'd stopped the defendant's car. My opponent tried to cross-examine the officer, but wasn't able to cast any doubts on the officer's version of events. Thanks to poorly drawn artwork and a makeshift prop, we won the motion.
But if lousy artwork and a business card can save the day, just imagine what you can accomplish with a little time and effort. Here's a quick and easy to create inexpensive courtroom exhibits that will help your witnesses tell their stories and show the jury exactly what happened.
Start by printing a large (30" x 40" is a good starting size, bigger is probably better) image of your scene. Maybe it's an aerial photograph of the apartment complex, the layout of the emergency room, or a map showing the fatal roadway or intersection.
EXAMPLE OF AN INTERSECTION AERIAL VIEW
After you've printed out your image, you'll want to give it a magnetic backing. You can either purchase magnetic backing (it's easy to find, just do a Google search for "Magnetic Adhesive Sheeting" and you'll find tons of suppliers) or you can temprarily attach your image to a magnetic board, such as a magnetic dry erase board.
Once your image has a magnetic back, you can use small magnetic figures to “show” the jurors exactly where the collision took place, where the doctors and nurses were positioned, or where everyone was standing when the fight broke out.
For your “actors,” you've got two different options. The first option is to print photos of the cars, the doctors' faces, etc., attach magnetic backing to the photos, and then let your witnesses play.
The second option is to use 3-D figurines. You might be tempted to use your old Star Wars figures (“I'll use Luke Skywalker for my client, and the role of my opponent will be played by Darth Vader!”), but it's probably better to check your local hobby shop or shop online for a wide variety of scale size replicas. A quick search in the Google Images library will turn up hundreds of figures in all shapes and sizes. You'll find office workers, cars, outdoor workers, trucks, teenagers, travelers, police officers, animals, fire fighters, nudists... Whatever you need, they've got it! Attach a small magnet to the bottom of each figurine, and you've got an instant exhibit that will help your witnesses tell their story.
A quick note about scale: There are plenty of different sizes available. Hobby shops will have sizes running from 1:220 (Z scale), to 1:87 (HO scale, the most popular model train size), all the way up to 1:12 (dollhouse size). Don't worry about matching the scale exactly -- after all, this is a demonstrative exhibit, so the evidentiary requirements aren't as strict. Find one that's big enough for your jurors to see, and then use a consistent scale for all of your elements. You can't use a “Z” scale train to represent your poor defenseless client, and then use a 1:12 scale monster to represent your opponent. It might be fun, but the judge won't permit it.
By using these quick and easy exhibits, you'll make it easier for your witnesses to tell their stories. Not everyone can adequately describe the images in their heads or put thoughts into words. But if you give them some tools to help them tell their story, they can show you (and your decision maker), exactly what they saw.
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“I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him.”
- ABRAHAM LINCOLN
How effectively did your witnesses tell their stories? Would an exhibit have improved their testimony?
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